(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and particularly to a technique for decreasing deterioration of image quality in an image forming apparatus that forms an image based on digital image data.
(2) Description of Related Art
In image forming apparatuses that form an image based on digital image data, various image processing such as smoothing and edge enhancement is generally employed to improve image quality. Such image processing is performed on pixels of an image in accordance with an image type, examples of which include a character image and a halftone-dot image.
However, conventional image processing apparatuses have the problem that an image type may be misjudged and then image processing that is not supposed to be performed may be performed on the image, causing image quality to be deteriorated. Such misjudgment often occurs in pixels that come in contact with an edge area of a character when a character image is present on a halftone-dot area.